Ethen Gearhart's Arc

Chapter 9 of 9

The second rider pulled up hard and threw back his hood. He wore the commander's colors, but his hands shook on the reins. Ethen kept his gun level. His own report was still miles out on the ice. So this man carried no answer to it. He carried something sent before. Something Ethen had not seen coming. "The commander sends word," the rider said. "You are to stand down your squad and ride back under escort. There is a charge against you. Cowardice in the field. A report says you fled the beasts and left two knights to die." Ethen's grip tightened. No knights had died. The squad stood whole behind him. He understood then what had happened. The traitor inside the castle, the one who had leaked the princess's network, had fed the commander a lie. A false account had reached the order before the truth could. "That report is a forgery," Ethen said. "Count my knights. Every man who rode out is standing here." The rider glanced past him and counted. His face changed. The numbers did not match the story he carried. But counting living men proved only that no one was missing today. It did not prove how the beasts fell. Ethen needed the battle itself. He whistled, and his cheetah limped forward, scorched plates catching the light. Then Waffles dropped from a relic and padded to the rider's horse. The cat sat, lifted a paw, and tapped the brass goggles on his head. "He recorded the fight," Ethen said. "Every shot. The boiler. The beasts torn apart." He pried the spool from the goggles and held it up. "The forged report says I ran. This glass shows me leading the charge. Take it to the commander beside the lie. Let him watch them side by side." The rider hesitated. Waffles chirped and pawed at the man's boot, insistent, as if herding him toward the truth. Ethen almost smiled. The cat had named the enemy on the horizon once. Now he named the enemy in a letter. "Carry both," Ethen said. "If the film and the forgery disagree, the commander trusts the glass. You know he does." He pressed the spool into the rider's hand. "And tell him the lie came from inside his own walls. Ask who handed him that report. That man is the mole." The rider sealed the spool in his pouch. He looked at the whole squad once more, then wheeled his horse and rode. Ethen lowered his gun. The charge would die the moment the commander watched the film. But a cold thought stayed with him. Someone in the castle had tried to end his command with a forged page. That person knew his name. That person would try again. Waffles climbed to his shoulder and watched the rider shrink on the ice. The lie was answered. The liar still had a name Ethen did not know.